"On a serious tip, …"

[Wilson Gray]

I've never quite been able to get a feel for either that phrase or
its, IME, much older relative,

_on a bullshit tip_


Last Friday, on Springer, I heard a twenty-ish, black guest use the phrase,

"on a serious tip"

meaning, both here and in Google Books, in context,

"in a serious manner or sense, for a serious reason, seriously," etc.

dated by Google Books to 1992. However, since I've long since been off
the set, that I've never heard the phrase before now comes as no
surprise.

OTOH, I first heard

"on a bullshit tip"

hundreds of times a day - without being able to fathom how to use it -
starting in 1962, when I was still on the set, and GoogBks has it in
print from 1968:

"… [Y]ou people ... got me all the way out here _on a bullshit tip_ …"

James Baldwin. 1968. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone. New York: Dial
--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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